"Omnes utriusque sexus studeant honeste vivere". La disciplina sessuale nella legislazione beneventana (secc.XV-XVII)

In this paper, sexual crimes are used as magnifier to investigate law and society at the beginning of Modern Age. For its political condition, Benevento shows how the sexual problem grow during Counter-Reformation and reflect in juridical transformations. Analyzing two statutes (the 15th century one and the 16th century one), it’s possible to point out different approaches and some lines of continuity that leave from Medieval pluralism and lead to State-building. In this process, Canon law plays a strategic – and ambiguous – role, very evident in a Pontifical town like this.